The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2015, and October 31, 2016 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2016 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on November 3, 2016, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

Glory Greenleaf has big dreams and a penchant for drama, while Deputy Sheriff Eli Barlow believes in law, order, and Glory's incandescent talent, so when their soul-scorching attraction interferes with her big break, Eli realizes he may love her too much to hold on to her.
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"An unlikely romance between two beautifully written characters will leave readers swooning."

Vaughn Hargrave is a gallery assistant whose world revolves around art. Without the distraction of sex or romance, he's free to focus on work friends and creating a comfortable life for himself. Jonah Sondern is his exact opposite. His life revolves around the gym, the club, and hot, anonymous, sex.
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O'Hara's debut romance stars a former major league baseball superstar with a major chip on his shoulder, a woman with an aversion to commitment, and a raucous crew of elderly vacationers.
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"A sweet, touching love story that revisits a fascinating and overlooked aspect of history: the confounding way time was kept and how it could cause more problems than it solved."

When Meg Lockwood's fiancé abandons her at the altar, he dashes her hopes for healing the family feud that split their Old West town—and things become even more complicated when her father sues the groom, bringing a handsome East Coast lawyer into her life.
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Bestseller Kendare Blake’s latest novel, Three Dark Crowns, a dark and inventive fantasy about three sisters who must fight to the death to become queen. In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions. But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. The last queen standing gets the crown. “Gorgeous and bloody, tender and violent, elegant, precise, and passionate; above all, completely addicting,” our reviewer writes in a starred review.
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FEATURED FICTION AUTHOR

If you’ve read Ann Patchett’s collection of nonfiction essays, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, you may find some vague familiarities in her new, masterful seventh novel Commonwealth—divorce and its exponential aftermath, cops and writers, Catholicism, caretaking, commuting between California and the South. Loosely based on ...

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